A Display of Selectivity

The plight of African people whose suffering rarely makes international headlines, who receive no or inadequate assistance, and who never become the center of attention for international diplomacy efforts.

The war in Ukraine has highlighted the immense gap between what is possible when the international community rallies behind a crisis, and the daily reality for millions of people suffering far from the spotlight.

All of the ten most neglected crises are on the African continent. That many African countries top this list is far from new. For example, the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has become a textbook example of neglect, featuring in the top ten crises in the world six times in a row. Most international media outlets rarely cover these countries beyond ad hoc reporting on new outbreaks of violence or disease, and in several African countries, the lack of press freedom exacerbates the situation. Then there’s donor fatigue, and the fact that many African countries are deemed to be of limited geopolitical interest. The low level of funding limits the ability of humanitarian organizations both to provide adequate humanitarian relief and to do effective advocacy and communication work for these crises, creating a vicious circle. Seldom has the selectivity been more striking.

In response to the tragic crisis in Ukraine, we have witnessed an outpouring of humanity and solidarity. Political action has been swift. Donor countries, private companies, and the public have all contributed generously. The media has been covering the crisis around the clock. At the same time, the situation is deteriorating for millions of people afflicted by crises taking place in the shadows of the Ukraine crisis. Hunger levels are on the rise in most of the countries on the neglected crises list, compounded by rising wheat and fuel prices caused by the war in Ukraine. Parents have been forced to cut back on meals for their already malnourished children. Humanitarian organizations have been consistently sounding the alarm since the start of 2022, but the necessary action is yet to be taken by the international community. On top of this, funding for these neglected crises is under threat. Several donor countries are now considering, or have decided, to reallocate funds from other parts of the world to the Ukraine crisis and the refugee response in Europe. It is a recipe for disaster. And it will be felt first and foremost by people whose names we do not know and whose stories have gone untold.

Let’s look at what we can learn from the Ukraine response. The speed at which the UN, the EU, and other international partners acted in response to the war in Ukraine should inspire the same urgency for solutions and support to the most neglected crises of our time. Increased awareness about these crises is an important first step towards action.

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) tops NRC’s neglected crises list for the second year running. Congolese women, men, and children continue to suffer in a deafening silence.

In 2021, it took a major geological event, the eruption of Nyiragongo volcano, to trigger some brief international attention to the country. But while the world’s spotlight was on the lava flows, the plight of millions of Congolese in need of urgent assistance across the country remained neglected. Food insecurity reached the highest level ever recorded, with 27 million people – a third of the country’s population – going hungry. At the end of 2021, DR Congo was home to more than 5.5 million internally displaced people, the third highest figure in the world. A further 1 million Congolese have sought shelter and protection outside the country.

Global Indifference

DR Congo was marked by fatigue in 2021. Not from the women, men, and children who lived through the daily reality of insecurity and struggle, but from political leaders and the media who once again paid little attention to the crisis. There were no high-level political discussions concerning DR Congo, such as senior officials’ meetings, donor conferences, or summits. The absence of strong international political engagement was matched by the lack of media coverage. Of all the 41 humanitarian crises analyzed by NRC, DR Congo received the lowest level of media attention when compared to the number of displaced people.

Unprotected Civilians

The international community’s inaction compounded its inability to protect civilians. Despite the efforts of MONUSCO, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, the northeast of the country has been continuously plagued by intercommunal tensions and conflicts, with a dramatic increase in targeted attacks on displacement camps since November 2021. Women, men, and children who had already fled attacks in their home villages were brutally murdered in the very place where they thought they had found refuge.

Lack of Humanitarian Funding

The growing level of needs has not been matched by a corresponding increase in support from donors. Only 44 percent of the 2 billion US dollars required to meet the humanitarian needs inside the country was received last year, and the refugee response remains severely underfunded.

2022 Brings More Hunger

Food prices are soaring, partly due to the war in Ukraine. Since March 2022, the cost of sugar and cooking oil has risen by 50 percent, bread by 20 percent, and rice by 11 percent, posing a huge challenge in a country experiencing historic levels of hunger. Insecurity and violence also persist across the country, leaving little hope for a brighter 2022.

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso settled into a full-blown crisis for the third year running. After a relatively quiet start to 2021, violence surged once again, leaving more than 800 civilians dead and forcing over half a million people to flee their homes. The country made international headlines in early June after unidentified gunmen slaughtered over 160 civilians in one night in the town of Solhan, the deadliest single attack in the country to date. News reporting was otherwise drastically hampered as journalists were de facto banned from accessing displacement sites. Implemented by the previous authorities, this ban significantly contributed to insufficient media coverage of humanitarian issues and a lack of reliable and independent information on attacks and security developments.

Funding of the humanitarian response was less than half of the total needed for the year and fell dramatically in key sectors: for example, only 10 percent of educational needs were covered in 2021 despite the fact that more than two out of three displaced people in the country are children. Widespread school closures due to insecurity left half a million students without access to learning – a new record in Africa’s Central Sahel region. With the rate of displacement skyrocketing at the turn of the year and political instability leading to a military coup in January 2022, the humanitarian situation is likely to spiral further this year. The number of displaced is creeping closer to the 2 million mark, while over 3.4 million Burkinabé are expected to go hungry during the upcoming lean season.

Cameroon

2021 saw three separate crises persist across Cameroon. Widespread insecurity, compounded by climate change and the socio-economic impacts of Covid-19, led to growing humanitarian needs in nine of the country’s ten regions. The crises left 4.4 million people in need of humanitarian support – almost half of whom had previously been uprooted from their homes. Violence and displacement drove up hunger levels, leaving almost 10 percent of the population food-insecure by the end of the year.

In the English-speaking regions, growing insecurity and abuses against civilians forced people to flee in search of safety. Attacks on teachers, schools, and health facilities continued, leaving 700,000 children unable to go to school. In the Far North region, violence and attacks significantly hampered humanitarian efforts and access to people in need. Droughts and flooding led to resource shortages, which deepened existing insecurities and drove further displacement. The eastern regions of the country saw an increase in the number of refugees from the Central African Republic, putting further pressure on local host communities.

Cameroon has been ranked in the top three on this list for the last four years due to a consistent lack of political engagement and international attention. 2021 was no different. Aid funding stagnated and international media attention remained limited, in part due to restrictions placed on journalists within the country. The situation in 2022 shows little sign of let-up for the people of Cameroon, as violence and insecurity persist. The detention of aid workers has led to some organizations suspending their programming, leaving even more people out of reach of aid.

South Sudan

While the 2018 peace agreement continued to underpin relative stability in South Sudan, widespread violence, ongoing displacement, and climate shocks drove growing humanitarian needs in 2021. A marked lack of international attention, as well as dwindling resources, made it increasingly difficult for humanitarian organizations to support people in need in South Sudan – let alone create the conditions for a sustainable countrywide recovery. Following a fall in the number of displaced people in the years following the 2018 peace agreement, new displacements meant the number of South Sudanese uprooted from their homes reached 4.3 million at the end of 2021.

The country faced its highest levels of food insecurity and malnutrition since gaining independence in 2011, with the Covid-19 pandemic aggravating the situation for the most vulnerable. A third devastating flood in as many years affected almost a million people last year, not only uprooting people from their homes and spreading disease, but also destroying around 40,000 tonnes of cereals and killing 800,000 livestock. Slow economic progress and the country’s limited capacity to deliver basic services will mean that creating an environment conducive to the safe return and reintegration of displaced populations will continue to be a challenge in 2022. The ongoing impacts of the floods will lead to an earlier than usual lean season in the first half of the year and widespread hunger across the country, with 8.3 million people predicted to be food-insecure.

Chad

In 2021, the prolonged conflict and subsequent death of President Idriss Déby Itno exacerbated Chad’s already dire humanitarian situation. Following Déby’s death, a Transitional Military Council took over and committed to leading an 18-month transitional period towards elections. However, the new authority imposed a crackdown on anti-government protests, and violence and displacement ensued. Around 406,000 Chadians had been internally displaced at the end of the year, with nearly a million refugees and asylum seekers residing in the country – the highest number recorded to date.

Humanitarian needs increased by 30 percent last year, with 5.5 million people in need of aid. Lack of adequate funding and limited access for humanitarian organizations left people without vital support. By the end of 2021, the humanitarian response was only 43 percent funded. Deteriorating food security and access to health and education were major concerns, with over 2 million children expected to go hungry in 2022. Insecurity and attacks on civilians continued in the Lake Chad Basin, driving further displacement and deepening existing vulnerabilities. The situation is likely to deteriorate further in 2022, as political instability and violence persist, and climate shocks continue to impact the region.

Lack of International Attention and Funding

Across the board, the lack of political engagement and international attention to these crises has been striking. The international community has largely focused its resources and attention on more prominent global crises, leaving millions of people in these neglected crises without adequate support. The level of humanitarian funding has consistently fallen short of the needs, leading to a severe lack of basic services such as food, water, shelter, and healthcare. The limited media coverage further compounds the issue, as it fails to bring these crises to the forefront of global consciousness, resulting in a continued cycle of neglect and suffering.